1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for processing document requests in a network system and, in particular, for processing requests for web pages using a proxy server.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet, otherwise known as the World Wide Web, is developing into one of the most widely used mediums for delivering advertisements and information. Many providers of content and information on the Internet (xe2x80x9ccontent providersxe2x80x9d) are able to offer their content free of charge because of the revenue they generate from selling advertising space. Advertisements are included in the Web pages that include the user requested content and information. For instance, newspapers often allow Internet users free access to their daily editions. The low cost of providing access to Web pages including the daily newspaper content may be offset by the revenue generated from selling advertisement space on the newspaper Web pages. In fact, every Web page of newspaper content can include advertisements. Some newspaper providers on the Internet are spreading the content from a single article across multiple Web pages to provide different advertisements in each Web page. This requires the user to view multiple Web pages of advertisements in order to read the entire article. Advertisers often find Internet advertisement highly effective because Internet users can access the advertisers"" Internet Web page by double-clicking the displayed advertisement and obtain further information on the advertiser and information on how to order products.
An Internet user at a client computer typically uses an Internet Web browser, also known as an Hyper Text Protocal (HTTP) client, that can process Web pages coded in the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) format. The HTTP client sends a request message to a server over the Internet which includes HTTP server software to process the request message. The request message typically includes a Universal Resource Locator (URL) which specifies the path of the requested information on the Internet and the name of the file at the specified path. The HTTP server processes the request and returns the requested file at the URL if it is available as part of a response message to the requesting HTTP client.
With current Internet advertising techniques, when an Internet user requests a file from an HTTP server in the form of an HTML Web page, the HTTP server transmits the user the requested HTML Web page including URL links to various advertisers. The advertisements, including the URL links to the advertisers"" web pages, are displayed in the HTML Web page at the user""s HTTP client computer. If the user at the HTTP client computer selects one of the displayed ads, the user""s HTTP client will send a request message for an HTTP Web page to the advertiser""s HTTP server. The advertiser""s HTTP server will then provide the HTTP client with a Web page from the advertiser""s Internet Web site.
With such current techniques, only content providers, such as news services, are able to offer advertising. The content providers embed URL links to the advertisers""s web pages along with the requested Web page. Thus, the content providers are the primary Internet servers that are in the unique position of being able to tailor and determine how information is presented to Internet users and, in the process, earn advertising revenue.
There is a need in the art for technology and methodology to allow entities other than the content providers to present and control how information is provided to Internet users.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, preferred embodiments disclose a method and system for processing a file request. A request is received from a client computer for a file at a file path location in a network. A request attribute associated with the request from the client computer is determined. Rule information indicating at least one substitute file and an attribute associated with each substitute file is processed to determine whether the determined request attribute matches an attribute associated with one substitute file. The substitute file associated with the attribute that matches the request attribute is retrieved after determining that the request attribute matches the attribute associated with the substitute file. The retrieved substitute file is then returned to the client computer via the network.
In further embodiment, the requested file is included in a first server. A second server performs the steps of receiving the request, determining the request attribute, processing rule information, determining whether the request attribute matches, retrieving the substitute file, and returning the substitute file to the processing system. The first server, client computer, and second server communicate over the network.
In yet further embodiments, the attribute associated with the substitute file is a member of the set of attributes comprising a file path location, an address identifier, and a time range and the request attribute associated with the request is a member of the set of request attributes comprising a file path location, an address identifier, and a time range.
In still further embodiments, the substitute file and requested file are in a Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). In such case, the retrieved substitute file may be modified to include a hypertext reference to the file path location of the requested file.
With preferred embodiments, a substitute file, such as a file containing advertisements or other relevant information, may be provided to a requesting client computer when the request is associated with a particular attribute. A plurality of substitute files may each be associated with attributes. In this way, a substitute file can be presented in lieu of the requested file based on one or more request attributes associated with the client request. For instance, if the attribute is a particular Universal Resource Identifier (URI) or Universal Resource Locator (URL), then the substitute file would be presented to the requesting client when the URL of the requested file matches the attribute URL of the substitute file.
Preferred embodiments are particularly applicable in an advertising context when a user requests a file located on a content server by first sending the request to a proxy server. The proxy server may be maintained by the user""s Internet Service Provider (ISP). The requested file may be an HTML file and the content server may be an Internet site that regularly provides content, such as the CNN and New York Times Internet web sites. Preferred embodiments allow the proxy server to return specific advertisement pages or other information pages to the requesting client in lieu of the requested file based on various attributes of the request, such as the URL of the request, the DNS name of the requesting client, and other factors. In this way, the proxy server can tailor advertisements presented to requesting clients according to a rule based system.